Featuring Mickey Gitzin, NIF Acting CEO
Tuesday, April 21, 7:00pm
This Yom Ha’atzma’ut, Israeli Independence Day, marks 78 years since the birth of the State of Israel. At this challenging time and critical juncture, how do we support the vision and build the future of the Israel we want to see? Beth David hosts Mickey Gitzin, the Acting CEO of the New Israel Fund.
The New Israel Fund (NIF) helps Israel live up to its founders’ vision of a society that ensures complete equality to all its inhabitants. NIF’s aim is to advance liberal democracy, including freedom of speech and minority rights, and to fight the inequality, injustice and extremism that diminish Israel. From Israel’s first women’s shelters to fighting discrimination, NIF-funded organizations have driven positive social change and furthered justice and equality. NIF has provided over $350 million to more than 950 organizations since our inception in 1979. NIF is at philanthropy’s cutting edge—thanks in large part to NIF’s action arm Shatil, the New Israel Fund Initiative for Social Change. Today, NIF is a leading advocate for democratic values, building the coalitions and empowering the activists that can drive meaningful social change in Israel.
Mickey Gitzin is the Acting CEO of the New Israel Fund. Mickey served as the Executive Director of the New Israel Fund in Israel from 2017-2025. Leading Israeli publications such as the Marker and Yedioth Ahronoth describe Mickey as a leading figure in the field of defending Israeli democracy and social change.
Prior to joining NIF, he was the founding director of Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel), a leading grassroots organization fighting for religious freedom in Israel. Previously, Mickey served as a city council member in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, a spokesperson for MK Ilan Gilon (Meretz), and the Associate Director of Festival BeShekel, an organization advancing arts and culture in Israel’s geographic and socioeconomic periphery. He also served as a shaliach (emissary) in South Bend, Indiana for the Jewish Agency for Israel. Mickey holds a master’s in public policy from the University College-London, where he was a Research Fellow in the Israeli–Palestinian Atkin Fellowship, and a BA in International Relations and Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
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